Would You Put Pure Silk on Your Face for Baby-Soft Skin?

There are products with hydrolyzed silk, a less effective silk extract, and then there are ones with pure silk, which is found pretty much nowhere in any of your serums. That is, until we came across the newest kid on the block, Silk Therapeutics, which found a way to liquidize silk in its pure form. Well, more like the kid who came back sophomore year after getting a haircut and spending the summer at the gym—people are just noticing now (guilty).

The company, which has been around since 2013 but just launched its newest line of products this past month, created the purest form of silk you can bottle. In comparison, the more common hydrolyzed silk that you'd find in most ingredient lists is "typically treated with acid...and loses some of the strength and elasticity of the original non-hydrolyzed silk protein," says cosmetic chemist Jim Hammer.

Why do you even want silk in your skin care? Basically, silk is to human skin is what George is to Amal—they're just really compatible and badass together. They share the same 18 amino acids and have a similar protein structure (we're talking about silk and skin, not the Clooneys). Plus, pure silk helps retain the properties of the products' other ingredients. Of which there are only a few—none of Silk Therapeutics' products contain more than eight ingredients, and its Silk +30 Film contains only one—just a megadose of 30 percent vitamin C. That's impressive because vitamin C is notoriously hard to stabilize, losing its skin benefits easily once exposed to light, air, or heat (if you're not familiar with our vitamin C obsession by now, you should just know it's pretty real; the ingredient protects our skin from UV rays, keeps our complexion bright, and helps to fade dark spots).

To liquidize the silk, the company found a way to first discard the gluelike coating of the original silk fiber, which can cause an allergic reaction when it comes into contact with skin. This leaves the fibroin, the pure silk fiber. Since the fiber alone has a molecular size that helps it penetrate into the skin (along with other ingredients, like hyaluronic acid), it works better than hydrolyzed silk, which contains bigger molecules that don't penetrate as deeply in the skin.

After using the products for months now, I've noticed a huge difference in my skin—my complexion looks more evened out. The products start at $45, which may be an investment for some, but if you're looking for a strong anti-aging formula that helps brighten your skin, start with the C Advance Intensive Serum. It contains enough for about 88 uses per bottle, and if you use it every night, that gives you more than two months' use. That's 60-plus days of brighter skin.